Over the last year The New Economy has been working with IBM to follow the changing conversation around Cloud technology. Sebastian Krause explained how data and cognitive analytics have become key to business success; and Boas Betzler discussed the architecture needed to realise the benefits of the cloud. We spoke to Yasser Eissa, Vice President of IBM Cloud and Cognitive in Europe, to find out where we are today – especially with imminent data protection regulations coming to Europe.

Yasser Eissa: Cloud has evolved over the past years. Most of the companies in Europe have adopted cloud as a tactical approach, focused on IT cost and efficiency, mostly to deploy IT infrastructure as a service through a public cloud provider.

Today, most of the companies are beyond this initial phase. They are seeing cloud as a platform for innovation; to enhance productivity and competitiveness. Those businesses ultimately want to grow their revenue streams, which requires multi-cloud environments: fully integrated, flexible, and with secure solution platforms.

This is why we believe, and we are convinced, that cloud today has to be built for the enterprise: one that can leverage all types of data, and is secure to the core.

In Europe, data is extremely important. In particular in the evolution to multi-cloud. While public cloud might be the ultimate destination for many companies in Europe, hybrid cloud is a key part of this transition. Enterprises today are looking for flexibility and choice: where to best deploy their workloads and applications. An environment based on open standards, highest security levels, and data protection.

In IBM, we take pride that we are able to provide to our clients choice in where to best deploy their workloads and applications. In return, our clients have given us the trust to responsibly host and transparently manage their data. We take this responsibility very seriously.

We were an early adopter of the European Data Protection Code of Conduct, and we are absolutely committed to help our clients meet General Data Protection Regulation compliance criteria by May 2018, when it comes into force.

We have recently also launched a data manifesto, which is a very comprehensive set of principles and policies around data governance, to underline our commitment. But we are not stopping here. On November 1st we announced a new offering: IBM Cloud Private, which is designed to run behind the firewall of our clients. It gives clients the experience of a public cloud, while it runs inside their own data centres. And it facilitates integration and portability of workloads as they evolve to any other cloud platform.

Another thing we did in November: we announced a new supporting model for IBM Cloud in Frankfurt in Germany, in the heart of Europe. Where we are giving clients complete control of their data, and the confidence that their data stays in this cloud data centre in Frankfurt, under the highest security levels and standards.

First and foremost, clients have complete control of their data. Access to client personal data is technically restricted, and under control of IBM EU employees at all times. For dedicated instances, clients are able to review and approve requests from outside the EU if required in exceptional cases.

In addition, we have expanded our support teams to provide 24/7 support to our clients, and we are able to transact directly with our clients – no third party intervention required.

It’s also important to outline that our clients are not required to relinquish the rights to their data; they own their data, and also the insights derived from their data.

We are providing cognitive solutions and cognitive APIs out of the IBM Cloud, so that our clients can infuse it into their products and services, and derive better insights from their structured and unstructured data, and better serve their clients.

Companies across Europe need a cloud that is built for the enterprise, one that can leverage all types of data, and is secure to the core.